Good morning, friends!
It’s Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Today’s post is an update from last year’s post.
I had attended a talk by Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, who explained that Indigenous people do not believe that the land belongs to them; rather, they believe that they belong to the land.
Read — or reread — Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass!
This sense of place and belonging is one that some of us also feel, to some degree.
I have lived in Brooklyn for most of my life; although I was not born here, my mother was born here and so was my child. It is the place where I feel a sense of home, of belonging, but not ownership, in spite of being a ‘homeowner’.
Belonging to the land confers obligations — to harvest honorably, steward, and give back to the land. I am not even a gardener, but I do take my composting very seriously, and my several hours of volunteer gleaning have redoubled my respect for farmers.
This is a pale engagement with the land when compared to that of the people who were here first.
Learn more about and support the work of the Peconic Land Trust and the people who belong to Shinnecock land on Long Island.
I recently hung a third art exhibition in the lobby of the building where I live. Hanging art is one of the ways we belong to a place. All of the artists are residents of the building.
This year, we had a theme: Light. This is Rosie’s Morning Sunset.
Here’s the land acknowledgment we included with the exhibition.
For non-Indigenous communities, land acknowledgment is a powerful way of showing respect and honoring the Indigenous Peoples of the land on which we work and live. Acknowledgment is a simple way of resisting the erasure of Indigenous histories and working towards honoring and inviting the truth.
Here’s a list of ways to celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day in NYC and elsewhere from Indian Country Today.
The Supreme Court is hearing a case this term challenging the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act, which was passed in 1978. Shannon Smith, an attorney and the executive director of the ICWA Law Center in Minneapolis, explains the challenge:
The central argument is that the Indian Child Welfare Act made it more difficult for some [non-Native] families to adopt. I think one of the really interesting pieces is that two of the families involved, in fact, have adopted the children that were kind of at the center of the Texas litigation. And the Indian Child Welfare Act worked in a way where there was ultimately tribal support for the adoptions.
The suit asserts that the ICWA is race-based legislation that violates the Equal Protection Clause. Smith explains that this is about political affiliation, not race, since it is about the fact that the children are tribal citizens; the issue is which governmental body has the power to authorize their adoption.
For Smith, and the many organizations that have filed amicus briefs in defense of ICWA, this is about protecting the sovereignty and continued existence of tribal nations.
The Roberts Court favors so-called race-neutral approaches to the law, and there is real concern that the Court will dismantle ICWA. In the current case, the Court may alter the long legal history recognizing Indigenous political rights.
Call on President Biden to make an executive order to protect native children and Indigenous sovereignty. This quick action is from the Lakota Law Center.
The most important feature of tribal sovereignty — as written into the US Constitution (section 8, paragraph 3) — are the treaty rights guaranteed to Indian Tribes. Obviously, many treaties were signed by the US government in bad faith.
The Duwamish people belong to the land in the Seattle/Greater King County area. They are signatories to the Point Elliot Treaty of 1855, but they have been denied recognition and rights. [Note: The passage above about why land acknowledgments are important comes from the Duwamish people’s website.]
[T]he tribe has had to make up for a lack of federal funding and health care and educational support that recognized tribe members can be eligible for. In the 1980s, the tribe founded an organization to help provide for community needs and social and cultural services. More recently, people in the wider Seattle area have donated to the nonprofit Real Rent Duwamish, which provides direct funds to the tribe.
Send a letter to the president in support of restoration of Duwamish treaty rights. This is a ready-made action.
a movement that’s growing in reach as non-Native individuals, conservation organizations, and government entities reckon with what it means to live on lands taken from tribal nations. Native leaders and LANDBACK organizers say that the theft of Native lands, stolen to create the US and generate private wealth for white people, is the root of systemic injustices propelled by extraction and capitalism, like climate change. In this sense, returning stolen Native lands isn’t just a matter of legality or morality but underlies the health and survival of the planet.
Read Ray Levy Uyeda’s outstanding series of articles on the LANDBACK movement.
Although kelp is an edible seaweed, the bay is still heavily polluted by overdevelopment and untreated wastewater, so the kelp grown there cannot be used as food or in skin products. The farming operation is helping to restore the nitrogen balance and producing kelp to be used as fertilizer.
Support the Shinnecock Kelp Farmers!
And finally, if you have somehow missed the series Reservation Dogs, I’m recommending it. In addition to the fact that the show runners, actors, and writers are Indigenous people, it offers a rich, tragicomic portrayal of teenagers who are coming of age in the context of an inherited culture, authentic social problems, and the existential challenge of figuring out how to live.
Have a great day!
with love,
L